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'Time' Highlights Ithaca College Professor's Photo Book as One of 2011's Best

ITHACA, NY — “Time” magazine has included a book by Nicolas Muellner, an associate professor in the Department of Cinema, Photography, and Media Arts at Ithaca College, on a list of the best photobooks of the year. Published last October by A-Jump Books, “The Amnesia Pavilions” depicts Muellner’s return trip to a small city in Eastern Siberia after a 17-year absence.

The list was compiled by the photo editors at “Time” and a group of photographers and photography experts from around the world. It was posted in LightBox, a new blog by the magazine’s photo department.

A combination of textual and visual autobiography, “The Amnesia Pavilions” details Muellner’s 2009 visit to Ulan-Ude, where he attempts to find an old friend who has disappeared. Guided by the extensive photographic and written material produced on his earlier journeys, as well as reflective chronicling of his futile retracings, the book considers the impossibility of tracking down and understanding one’s former self.

Jason Fulford, publisher of J&L Books, selected Muellner’s book for inclusion on the list. Fulford notes that “text and image are represented in equal parts, and play off of each other with subtlety and emotion. The older Muellner reflects on the younger version of himself with both nostalgia and a critical eye.”

Muellner teaches photography and critical studies in the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College and has held solo and group exhibitions in the U.S. and Russia. He has collaborated on critical writings, multimedia works and curatorial projects, including “Now Is The Winter,” an exhibition of politically and psychologically linked works by U.S. and Russian artists that opened at Proekt Fabrika in Moscow in May 2007.